The following is the fourth part of the Lighthouse Trails Year in Review. Our Year in Review series (usually 4-5 parts) is especially helpful for those who have missed some of our year’s reporting or perhaps forgotten about some of these important articles. The following 5 articles are from out-of-house guest writers.
See Part 1 of Year in Review: Top 10 Letters to the Editor.
See Part 2 of Year in Review: Top 10 Out-of-House News Stories.
See Part 3 of Year in Review: Top 10 Articles by LT Authors
(1) How the Tragic Killing of George Floyd Has Been Exploited (Bob Woodson): How is the anger and grief following George Floyd’s killing being exploited? Why does civil rights veteran Bob Woodson argue that the national focus on systemic racism distracts from larger problems facing black America? How do funds meant for helping low-income black communities fail to actually go to the people who need it most? And, what are real solutions to uplift people in impoverished neighborhoods?
(2) “You Can Be A Christian, You Can Be A Marxist, But You Can’t Be Both” (Joshua Lawson): It’s unclear how many Christians are going along with the current neo-Marxist collective guilt movement out of fear, a misunderstanding of what they’ve signed onto, or an authentic conversion to the cause. What is clear, however, is that you can’t be a Christian and a Marxist at the same time—not without irresolvable contradictions.
(3) ”Top Ten Reasons I’ll Never Support the #BlackLivesMatter Movement” (Ryan Bomberger): Every life unjustly killed deserves justice. In the cause to make things right, I will not join a movement that has nearly everything wrong. More innocent lives have now been killed (#BlueLivesMatter, too) since these predominantly violent protests began over George Floyd’s horrific death. What about the black lives killed in this nationwide chaos? Do they matter?
(4) Color, Communism, and Common Sense and Similarities to the U.S. Today (Manning Johnson): en years I labored in the cause of Communism. I was a dedicated “comrade.” All my talents and efforts were zealously used to bring about the triumph of Communism in America and throughout the world. To me, the end of capitalism would mark the beginning of an interminable period of plenty, peace, prosperity, and universal comradeship. All racial and class differences and conflicts would end forever after the liquidation of the capitalists, their government, and their supporters. A world union of Soviet States under the hegemony of Russia would free and lead mankind on to Utopia.
(5) One Woman’s Journey Into Calvinism (Brenda Nickel): My introduction to John Calvin came one spring night while driving down a desolate Wyoming highway. It was early evening. The road conditions were mildly challenging, which was often the case in that part of the country. I was listening intently to reformed theologian R. C. Sproul lecture about Romans 8:28-30 . . . I remember the moment well. The full moon lit up the prairie between the low buttes. The blowing snow was swirling across the road. The scenery was soothing, yet my mind was racing. Could it be that God elects some to eternal salvation? Did He deliberately choose some to be saved, but not all? While I thought I was about to learn more about Jesus Christ and His truth, in reality, I was about to learn more about the teachings of a man named John Calvin.
(photo from bigstockphoto.com; used with permission)